The hidden roots of Chile

By Group 7

All societies owe their present to their ancestors; history, culture, language, among others, are all inherited through generations. Culture is formed by various elements that over time have shaped the main features of a society. Thanks to this, we are able to identify and distinguish a group from another; this is what we call identity.

In spite of this, in Chile there is a constant negation of the particular cultural elements inherited from our land’s ancestors. In general, Chileans feel a constant attraction for foreign elements, and not only that; they even shape their own identity by using these unfamiliar elements. By doing this, they ignore their genuine cultural roots. But in this article we don’t want focus in this lack of recognition; we intend to go deeper into these elements and see how they really affect our idiosyncrasy.

As we mentioned previously there are various aspects in which you can notice a clear influence of the indigenous people. They can be common things, such as the very name our country has, a word that has its origins on native languages. In Quechua, “chili” or “chilli” means “flor y nata de la tierra” (“crème de la crème of the earth”, so to speak), whereas in Aymara “chili” means “where the land ends”, but in reality, there is no agreement in which is the correct origin. Following this line, it’s important to highlight the variation of the use of Spanish in Chile, which is mixed with many regional words unique to our language, giving it a special identity.

In the linguistic aspect, we have the integration of different languages that characterise our dialects, such as the repeated use of words of Indigenous origin, for names of cities and for common concepts used in the daily life of the Chilean society. For example:

- Apoquindo: apu: chief (name of a cacique)

- Atacama; tacama: black duck or a meeting.

- Cacao: cacahual: main ingredient of chocolate

- Cancha: kancha: site for racing and gaming.

These are only a few words of the hundreds that mark the defining cultural nuance of our speech and give us our own linguistic identity.

Another aspect of our daily live in which we notice a strong influence of indigenous culture is the cuisine. The recipes made with corn and potatoes,  like charquicán or humitas, are dishes that survived the Spanish conquest and currently are one of the main icons of the local cuisine. These products, among others, are native of our continent and they are used in almost every recipe, so their influence and importance in our cuisine is vital, as a mark of the strong relationship of our customs with the pre-Columbian past.

These elements are easy to notice in our daily life, but few people can appreciate and understand the importance of our cultural identity.

We constantly criticize the fact that we focus on what the "developed" countries have and we ignore what we are. We should to take into account and understand that, unfortunately, our country and every country in Latin America was born from the annihilation of civilization and the imposition of another one. Our aim for the future should be to keep the traditions and identity that represent us, and ideally, we should brush off most the costumes that have been copied by our society.

What do you think about the current chilean society? Can we progress without ignoring our forefathers? Should the government be involved in the “rescue” of our identity? Or is our society fine as it is?

Made in China

International Political Relations

The concept of international relations is often used to designate a discipline that is part of political science and which focuses on the links established between states or international organizations. Generally, is considered that international relations have to do with politics and although it is undeniable, we can also say that many times these relations are established regarding to cultural, economic, military and geographical aspects, among other things.

Originally, the main reasons because states have been related were war and economy. So, on one hand commercial exchanges has been the main reason for international relations. These relations maintain today throughout the world.

International relations focused on the economy are today ruled by a number of norms and agreements. These agreements are called Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which are established between two countries when they have a good political relation and this partnership represents a political, economic and cultural benefit to both countries.

Our country has a large number of FTAs with different countries, including China, one of the great powers. We believe that this agreement is one of the most important FTAs that has Chile, because in recent years, China has been an important role in the development of our economy; every day we see as Chinese products arrive to Chile and invade stores in our country.

Chile Free Trade Agreement

Since the late 1990s, Chile has acceded to a number of FTAs with countries in Latin America and around the world, including those signed with the major economies of the world: United States, China and the European Union. To date, through FTAs signed, Chile has free access to major market in the world.

The following list shows all the FTAs that currently has Chile with other countries:

 

FTA Chile - Hong Kong

FTA Chile - Vietnam

FTA Chile - Malaysia

FTA Chile - Turkey

FTA Chile - Australia

FTA Chile - Panama

FTA Chile - Japan

FTA Chile- China

FTA Chile - United States

FTA Chile - Canada

FTA Chile - Mexico

FTA Chile - Korea

FTA Chile- Central America

FTA Chile - European Free Trade Association

FTA Chile - Peru

FTA Chile - Colombia

Free Trade Agreement with China

Among all treaties between Chile and other countries, the treaty signed with China has been one of the most important for a commercial growth, meaning for both countries the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Around the world, Chile is the furthest country from China. However, the distance has not been an impediment to progress and take important steps that demonstrate the closeness between the two countries, based on the close relationship built up over the years: In 1970, Chile was the first country in South America to establish diplomatic relations with China; In 1999, Chile was the first Latin American country to support China's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO); in 2004, it was the first Latin American country to recognize China as global economy; and in 2005, it was the first to sign a FTA with China.

Benefits of free trade agreements for Chile

The Free Trade Agreement between Chile and China was a quick and effective negotiation. In June 2002, China proposed to Chile to begin negotiations for a trade agreement, which began in Beijing in January 2005 to culminate in October of the same year, establishing an important step by the end of the agreement. It was considered as a relevant agreement to our economy, allowing Chile have the key to enter a market of 1,300 millions people.

Since the entry into force of the FTA, on October 1st, 2006, China was increasing its presence on local trade, until become in the first trading partner of Chile in 2010, and receptor of 20% of total exports from Chile to the world.

Thanks to the FTA Chile-China, our country witnessed a decline in the prices of electronics, clothing and cars. Also, it has allowed to the mining to achieve historic exports to China, and witnessed a considerable increase in shipments of fresh fruits. Furthermore, in the agribusiness sector, it has begun to export products with higher elaboration, including wine, whose European competitors have a very high tariff; in the category of fresh fruits it was registered a strong increase by 111% in exports, as the treaty has allowed phytosanitary agreements, which has given a great boost to shipments of grapes, apples, cherries, plums and blueberries.

Disadvantages of free trade agreement with China

When exists a financial settlement with a great power like China, obviously a world of possibilities opens to Chile in the economic and cultural field. But not everything is perfect. What are the disadvantages of this FTA?

First, we have to start emphasizing the linguistic and cultural differences between the two countries, which is not a surprise considering that both are located in a completely opposite place on earth. This is complicated for business, especially for Chilean small and medium-sized enterprises, which do not possess the necessary tools to help them complete their business, such as professional translators to help them understand what their partner says. In addition, trade offices in Asia Pacific have little access to local businesses to promote the benefits and business opportunities in these markets.

There are also some large companies that are not entirely satisfied with this treaty, as the wine industry and dairy, which reduced their earnings during more than four years. Another important point is the latent fear that has the Chilean businessman. The fear that our market will be flooded with Chinese products, which are clearly cheaper and massive, and put aside manufactured in Chile. It could happen if the client prefers those low cost products, and Chilean manufacturing will be put aside in the future. But is the quality the same? Unfortunately, Chinese products usually are not of the best quality, and people realize it, but since the prices are outrageously low, people are increasingly inclined to them.

The problem lies in the small and medium-size enterprises, as they have not protection from the state or the authorities. Unfortunately they are losing their profits and their customers, since it is impossible to compete against the mass production of China.

The Free Trade Agreements are important because they are an effective way to ensure access to products and services to foreign markets, easily and without barriers. They also help to maintain good relations with other countries.

We must consider that FTAs have advantages and disadvantages for both countries. The main disadvantage for Chile is the invasion of Chinese products, which has harmed to small and medium-sized enterprises. But one of the great advantages of the treaty is that a few decades ago, we have been able to acquire Chinese novel products at very low cost, which partly helps people engaged in buying wholesale. However, we can not fail to note that even though these are low cost products, mass production reduces notably his quality.

We must not forget that China is the main manpower of many major brands.It is common to find clothing labels with the famous MADE IN CHINA. That is why many Chinese products are very similar to those products that we believe are exclusive. After all, most of the products we buy come from China, whatever the designer and product branding.

The free trade agreements, with its advantages and disadvantages, are the key to globalization and to create not only a commercial opening, but also culturally.

What do you think about FTAs? It is a benefit to Chile to have an agreement with countries like China?

What does your way of writing and speaking say about you?

By group 5

Whenever you speak, write, or perform any activity in which language is involved, you are showing aspects of your personality and character that can tell a lot about yourself. These characteristics are usually not that evident for the majority of the people we communicate with, but they can be easily identified by the trained senses of an expert. This is what forensic linguists do, they analyze any kind of written or spoken evidence that can help lead the trail to identify a potential criminal. Therefore, forensic linguistics consist of a crucial part in many legal procedures, since their application can prove to be the key element to identify a culprit, therefore solving a case that otherwise might have been much more difficult to handle.

Forensic linguistics is a branch of applied linguistics that connects language with Law. It is the application of linguistics to legal issues, and has to do with the usage of linguistic expertise, approaches and insights to the forensic perspective of the law, language, criminal investigation and court procedure. There are three main areas in which forensic linguistics work:

Understanding the legal, written language of law
- Understanding how language is used in forensic and legal procedures
- The provision of linguistic evidence

When it comes to the language of legal texts, any text or item of spoken language can be used and analyzed by forensic linguistics in a legal or criminal context. This includes the analysis of a diversity of linguistic documents, such as Acts of Parliament, private wills, court judgments, etc.

In the area of the language of legal procedures, language is examined in cross-examinations, evidence presentation, judge’s direction, police cautions, police testimonies in court, questioning processes in court, among other areas.

Then we have the area of the provision of linguistic evidence, which means that forensic linguistics are able to provide evidence in a wide range of situations, such as the identification of the author of written anonymous texts (like threat letters, emails or mobile phone texts), voice identification, also known as forensic phonetics, to determine if the voice on a recorded audio is that of the defendant, and others like discourse analysis, which is the analysis of the structure of written or spoken utterances to determine aspects such as whether a suspect is agreeing to engage in criminal conspiracy.

“Any statement you make can be used against you in a court of law”

There are two main fields in forensic linguistics application, those are juridical texts and legal proceedings. Now we are to mention those two briefly and specify the different types of texts, in which forensic linguistics is applied.

- Juridical texts:

Any text can be a potential forensic evidence. This area analyses the linguistic aspects of the documents. For example, the way in some letters are constructed shows aspects of the author´s behavior, and in the moment that forensic linguistics starts to find similar aspects in the sentences or predicates, they can make comparisons between previous letters or draw out the significant aspects in order to be compared later.

- Legal proceedings:

Legal proceedings refer to testimonies, cross-examinations, interviews, the manner of speaking the witness in a trial, the words of the judge, the jury and other aspects that involve the study of language and the ways of speaking. In this way, using simple aspects like voice tone, stutter and word repetitions can lead to find contradictions in the statements, or know if the person speaking is a reliable witness or not.

In fact, there is a specific “trick” that defense attorneys and prosecutors teach to their clients and witnesses, this “trick” is commonly used in trials and police interrogations. First, keep looking at the interrogator and blink from time to time, in this way you can give a sensation of security. It is said that people who stare directly without blinking normally, or people who never look straight in the eyes are potentials liars. Secondly, relax your body in a comfortable posture. Being uncomfortable can be interpreted as nervousness and even as the necessity of hiding something from the police. Finally, this is the most important part, keep your answers short and, if it is not necessary, do not give a lot of information. Unnecessary excuses can be dangerous, because they give space for more questions and interrogations, as the following example:

“- Where were you X day of September at X time?

- I was with Elvis in the bar, drinking beers and talking with a couple of well-looking ladies, but he had to go at 10 o'clock because he had things to do at home.

- Really? << killing look >> Elvis testified that when the clock struck 8, he had already left the bar, because he going to have practice the next morning… giving you enough time to commit the murder.”

In this example the linguistic factors are very important. A wrong statement or sentences strangely well done, can be interpreted as previously planned or invented.

Types of forensic texts:

• Emergency call

• Threats

• Suicide letters

• Declarations of condemned to death

One of the most emblematic cases involving forensic linguistics is the one of the “mad bomber”, who for 16 years planted bombs in different parts of New York.

The police managed to discover the identity of this man through the analysis of the letters he sent whenever he settled an explosive device. Remarkably, in all messages he referred to the electric company Con-Edison with feelings of resentment and guilt. Furthermore, he always signed his letters with the initials "F.P.", which meant "Fair Play".

Due to his constant terrorist attacks, the police contracted a psychiatrist named Brussel, so he could determine the offender’s profile. Brussel analyzed the letter’s writing and, due its meticulousness, he concluded that the “mad bomber” had obsessive behaviors. The psychiatrist also deduced his education and nationality by the vocabulary and content of the letters, because in them there were rarely used English words and the writing was like that of a translation. The psychiatrist was even able to predict the way the criminal was dressed when he was arrested by the police.

This is an extract of the mad bomber's profile:

Single man, between 40 and 50 years old, introvert. Unsocial but not anti-social. Skilled mechanic. Cunning. Neat with tools. Egotistical of mechanical skill. Contemptuous of other people. Resentful of criticism of his work but probably conceals resentment. Moral. Honest. Not interested in women. High school graduate. Expert in civil or military ordnance. Religious. Might flare up violently at work when criticized. Possible motive: discharge or reprimand. Feels superior to critics. Resentment keeps growing. Present or former Consolidated Edison worker. Probably case of progressive paranoia. (Brussel, 1968; cited by Wrightsman, 2001).

In 1957, the police managed to catch the culprit, and this was a man of 54 year old, named George Metesky. He had been working for the company Con-Edison for around 16 years, but he was fired. Besides, he was of Polish origin, unmarried and he lived with his two older sisters. It all was just as Brussel predicted it. Finally, he was admitted into a psychiatric hospital for 16 years due to progressive paranoia.

As you can see, forensic linguistics constitutes a greatly important part of legal procedures. By the analysis of language, through spoken or written evidence, this field of linguistics can help identify potential criminals, thus accelerating the legal process and even preventing further crimes. Thanks to the psychological techniques used in forensic linguistics, we can look deeper into the criminals' minds and understand the human psyche in a more profound way, which has proved to be an essential element in the forensics.

So, what do you think of forensic linguistics? What do you think of its importance in forensics? What do you think your own actions and writing would say about you?

If you want to know more about this kind of analyses, in the following link you can find a graphology test. We encourage you to take the time to do it, and if you want you can share your results with us!

Handwriting analysis

Lets know the true behind your favorite villain!

Some things that definitely define what we know as a good story on a movie or book are: an attracting plot  in a exciting place,  a hero/ main character which identifies us with his/her story and personality, and...the villain. The role portrayed by the villain is not just to be an obstacle for the hero's plans and dreams; it is more likely being a complement of what the protagonist and his world represents.

Many times the evil character, villain or criminal in a story is so well drawn that overshadows the hero, becoming loved by the readers and spectators, as in the case of Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes books, movies and tv serie), Gollum (The lord of the rings) and Voldemort (Harry Potter).

It may seem to be a completely new phenomena, but is something that started with the mass publications of books that became available worldwide the last century, and the spreading of movies and cinemas that made easier and cheaper to watch them. We could say is a result of the globalization process; however, this situation cannot be justified only that way. The globalization has only made easier to have access to those stories and follow them; people have chosen in a relatively free way to admire and even love those evil characters for many different reasons. They are fictional, but is possible for people to feel identified with them because those characters are rooted in our reality. For many people this origin based on the real it is just a myth, but something no one doubts is that every character is a kind of special mixture, sometimes carefully prepared in the author´s mind, using things they have seen in other person. A character may also be a mix of characteristics belonging to many people, as we will see later. In the case of the heroes, we find most of the time characteristics the author admires in a leader or person from the real world. And villains are not an exception: they are created following the same rule.

Most of those villains are presented like ordinary people at the beginning, but suddenly an unexpected event in their lives changes everything and they turn into dangerous villains: killers, terrorists and public enemies. Chief among them,we find whose attracts the audience more:  assassins  . But, is it a certain kind of people who have more chances to succumb under the dark forces, as it happens in real life? What  are their reasons? Do they need  to achieve some values, as we see many famous criminals do? We will try to clear up this matters, using two examples of the most famous  villains in fiction.

Hannibal Lecter

To begin with, we will  talk about Hannibal Lecter. This character (created by author Thomas Harris) is known for being a cannibal,as his name suggests.  In the story of the books he was a respected psychiatrist and patron of the arts in Baltimore, Maryland.  He was born in eastern Europe in an aristocratic family but suffered a traumatic event as a boy during World War II, when deserters killed his sister Mischa, and eat her. Since that moment, fourteen homicides are attributed to him. Even though his murderer's modus operandi (MO) -or the usual way that a particular criminal performs a crime-  is cannibalism, Lecter is not satisfied with simply eating his victims; he prepares sofisticated dishes with them.  The elaborate preparation of those meals is the way Hannibal express his hate and desire to get a revenge but in a “civilized” manner.

In the case of Hannibal, the traumatic event happened at the age of six, when he was a child, and changed him forever; if we investigate the most important events on a psychopath or murderer´life, we would see the same pattern.

They are a wide variety of theories concerned with the origin of the character. Many people think it is inspired by real serial killers all over the world, but in 2013 Harris revealed that the character was inspired by Dr. Alfredo Ballí Treviño, a real-life Mexican doctor and murderer he met while visiting a prison in Monterrey city.

The Joker

Without any doubt the Joker is the most hilarious, mysterious and famous villain in Batman’s saga, However,he didn’t have a backstory at the beginning, and he was portrayed as a completely “sane” and common villain, only accused for robbery. In the 1970’s . From those years, his madness and sociopathic behaviour started to increase and to develop with the past of the time, turning him into a real killer and making him more creative in his attempts  of defeating Batman.  

This character has a really interesting evolution, that made it beloved by the spectators: he started as a clownish burglar, and evolved into a anarchistic terrorist, who likes to do things just because they seem to be funny.

There are many famous quotes attributed to the last style of Joker, played by Heath Ledger. There is one part of a script from the last Batman movies (Christopher Nolan´s Batman) where we can see this dynamic hero-villain clearly, and the reasons behind The Joker´s behaviour:

“Joker:  

I don’t want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, NO! No. You… you… complete me.

Batman:

You’re garbage who kills for money.

Joker:

Don’t talk like one of them. You’re not! Even if you’d like to be. To them, you’re just a freak, like me! (...) You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. (...)They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these… these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.”

Even when the Joker was not based on any famous criminal, he has been a powerful inspiration for many copycat crimes(a crime inspired by a previous and well-known crime) performed by people who has serious psychological disorders or criminal background. From arson to mass murders, we can find many examples of criminalistic behaviour which has the purpose of imitate this character, as happened with James Holmes, which shoot 71 people at the cinema during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises.

After all this explanation we should conclude that serial killers and fantasy villains have many things in common: for example, they are not born that way, they are really formed by a combination of factors. First, they suffered a traumatic event that changed their life and for this reason they gain a cause, or purpose for living. Many people thinks that those complex and interesting characters are something that started with fictional works, but it is completely the other way round in most of the cases.

Which is your favorite villain? and why do you admire him/her? We look forward to your comments.

Working for a better world  

The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation which is conformed by 193 independent countries. Every participating nation agree to follow the Charter of the United Nations, a constituent treaty that defines the articles that the nations must respect. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War Two, with the intention to create an alliance between countries that would avoid another dreadful conflict. Since then, it has worked not only to maintain peace but also to improve people’s lives all around the world by mediating in territorial or political problems, promoting human rights and providing humanitarian assistance, among many others. There is no doubt that since its foundation, the United Nations have been a contribution to the improvement of the international relations. 
 

 

After the end of World War II, with the horrors of the holocaust and the atomic bomb still very present, a group of nations decided to pick up the idea of the League of Nations, founded in 1920, after World War I. These were 51 nations, which included all of the former allies of World War II, that decided to create an international organisation to keep peace and stable relationships between the nations of the world, in order to avoid another armed conflict such as the war that have just ended. On the 26th of October 1945, after years of preparation, the UN was officially founded in the Conference on International Organisation occurred in San Francisco, USA. In this occasion, 50 of the 51 members signed the Charter of the United Nations, where they committed to participate in this new instance. The only country that couldn’t assist then was Poland, due to internal instability. However, two months later, they were able to sign the charter, and with that, the UN was finally completely operative. Nowadays, the UN has 193 members, which means almost all of the independent nations of the world are part of the organisation. Since its foundation and to our days the UN has worked in many aspects to improve not only the political relations between its member nations but also to reach an egalitarian development, supporting women’s, children, and minorities rights. In the previous years, it has also started to raise the awareness about ecological issues and sustainable development.     

In the founding charter, the UN established six main organs: The General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of justice and the Secretariat.   

• The General Assembly: this is the main organ of the United Nations. In this assembly decisions about important international matters are made. To do so, representatives of every member state has a voice and the right to one vote. Usually, the  topics discussed in the assembly are peace and security related, etc. It is preceded by a president chosen by the assembly. The current president is the korean diplomatic, Ban Ki-Moon.

• Economic and Social Council: It coordinates the economic and social labour of the other organisms of the UN. Also, it works as the central forum to discuss economic and social matters.To improve its funcioning, it has been divided in organisations acording to zones, being the CEPAL the one assigned for Latin America.   

• Security Council: This is the council responsible of maintaining international peace and security. According to the Chart, all of the members have to comply with the decisions of the Council. After a period of relative inactivity caused by the Cold War, it has started to send peacekeeping missions all over the globe.   

• The Secretariat:  The Secretariat’s functions are varied: from managing the maintenance operations, mediating in international controversies,to evaluating the inclination and the possible problems in economical, social and human rights matters. It is divided into many offices and departments which revise differents issues. 

• International Court of Justice: Its headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands, in the Peace Palace, and it’s the main judicial organ. The Court decides disputes between states that recognise its jurisdiction. 

• Trusteeship Council: It was meant to provide international supervision for 11 Trust Territories placed under the administration of the League of Nations, which dissolved  in 1946. It ensured that adequate steps were taken to prepare the Territories for self-government and independence. Its work completed, the Council has amended its rules of procedure to meet as and where occasion may require.

 

As you know, we live in a violent and troubled world and the UN looks out for keeping the peace and the international security, because no country can stop conflicts by itself. Also, this organisation is responsible for issues which affect humanity such as the environment, poverty eradication, HIV/AIDS, terrorism, drugs, etc. The UN helps to build and strengthen economy and help us to stabilize financial markets. It also provides assistance to refugees and humanitarian aid in emergencies like natural disasters. Together with WHO (World Health Organization) support the immunization processes and the eradication of diseases, especially in the poorest countries of the world. In addition, the UN fight against infectious diseases and help to prevent them. We can not forget the importance of The United Nations in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was created in order to live on equal status, without distinction of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, origin, property, or other conditions. It is true that every country wants to protect its interests and necessities, causing conflicts and discussions with the surrounding countries . However,  this organism helps these countries to work together, to cross adversities, to defend its rights, to respect each other with the purpose to build a better world.

By Dayna Albiña

Carolina Foz

Antonia Soto

Group 2